Project Description

A Downward Turn

What the Catastrophozoic is Teaching Us

For Mergoat Magazine—

Summer 2025 (Volume 3, Issue 1)

I was on the edge of it, just a few dozen miles west of its path. A geographical hair’s breadth. I watched the outage maps and weather radar, checked the news updates obsessively in those last days of September as it barreled some 800 miles northward from where it made landfall, lashing down along the way and finally dumping more rain than anyone had thought possible on Southern Appalachia. …

In my latest essay, I wrote in the wake of Hurricane Helene about what the Catastrophozoic is teaching us. I was full of grief, but I tried to look harder as I witnessed my home in Southern Appalachia ravaged by floods.

Mergoat Magazine is a print-only magazine. This issue makes an effort to understand the conceptual complexity that lies behind the term “catastrophe,” and to continue processing the collective grief, trauma, and chaos that Southern Appalachia is experiencing post-Helene. This is an evocative, moving, and compelling record of Helene, featuring original art and poetry, alongside essays. You can pick up the whole issue here.